What do I do when I receive a fake booking request?

[Ruth-and-Allan0]

Today we received a fake booking request from an individual stating that she was in fact not wanting to book accommodation, but wanting to market her services. 

We had to decline this so called "booking"  as a potential booking or we would have lost our status with AirBnB.  We have asked Air BnB to look into screening booking requests and to consider blocking fake requests.

[Alexandra316 · Accepted solution]

@Ruth-and-Allan0 You can just flag the request at the top right corner: there's a little flag icon. Cliick it and choose a reason. I would also consider just accepting the request, as they're not going to book with you anyways.

These messages are super common because there is no other way for people to contact hosts on Airbnb. I'm not sure how they could stop it.

[Lawrene0]

Another way to deal with it, @Ruth-and-Allan0, is just to pre-approve. Tell her you are doing it because the system requires it. She is not going to complete the booking, of course, and you won't be dinged for too many declines. 

[Fred13]

The are two very-different words in the Airbnb world: 'Request' and 'Inquiry'. Was this an inquiry or a request?

[Ruth-and-Allan0]

Hi Fred, it was someone wanting to market their services.

[Sarah977]

@Ruth-and-Allan0  It's clear that the person was just marketing their services. Fred was asking if it came through as an Inquiry as opposed to a Booking Request. Are you aware of the difference?

[Laura--Laurici-0]

Inquiry: The guests contact you to get information or to ask questions. All you have to do is to chat with them, answer to their questions, ask questions about the purpose of their visit, etc... nothing else.

Request: The guests contacts you and want to book your place.  You have 24 hours to accept or refuse. 

Airbnb will some how punish you if the 24 hours pass and you do nothing. 

[Simon397]

I had a fake one week booking request from someone who wanted me to refer my excess clients to her because I was fully booked in the summer! This is ridiculous, because of course if I'm booked, people won't ask me for a booking anyway... I replied that I wasn't interested and then blocked her from all communication. I don't think you can do anything else? 

[Zoe14]

I am most concerned.  There is a marked increase in scam reservation requests.  I am regularly getting requests that are very shady – there is no photo, there are no reviews, there are strange questions, the country on their profile vs where they state they come from differs etc. etc.  I do not allow instant book, as I want to check each guest first (my AirBnB is inside my home and therefore I am exceptionally cautious).  I engage the potential guest with various chit chat and ask if they want breakfast, and expected check-in times, as well as ask them a little about themselves as “I like to get to know my guests a little before they arrive” etc.  I do no pre-approvals or instant declines…I give them a chance to respond, and then eventually decline (by giving the potential guest a reason for politeness sake) and give a full reason to Airbnb as well as explicitly state why I declined in order to protect myself if at anytime Airbnb or the guest wishes to complain.  As both a host and a guest I have learnt how to ensure my safety as well as suss out the riff raff.

My concern lies in the fact that Airbnb has never come back to me on any of the profiles that really show they are scams (and some profiles are still hanging around!), and secondly, the constant waste of time sorting out these spam and scam requests.  I also raise the concern that AirBnB needs to increase the verification process and that the profile needs to have more than just a photo and “telephone number verification”.  These types of profiles with minimal verifications need to be checked more closely, and that Airbnb also reviews profiles where there has been no usage.  I have no issues with the “email” correspondence via the Airbnb platform being reviewed – I make sure that I do everything via the platform to protect me and them at all times.

Any correspondence with Airbnb yields zero response.  And for me to be constantly declining bookings really, really concerns me.  I am a SuperHost and wish to maintain such a status.  However, I am not going to accept dodgy bookings.

Any ideas or comments??

[Kristen204]

I’ve been getting this more and more too! I usually don’t accept or decline, I just message them back with specific questions and they don’t answer and the request times out. I’ve tried to report it but there isn’t an option to report this time of request. It makes me nervous that if I accept a request the person will have my name and address and phone number and then could just cancel and take that info.

[Laura--Laurici-0]

Change your cancelation policy to STRICT. If they are not serious they don't book, because you will keep part of the money if they book and cancel. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

If it's an inquiry, you can pre-approve and not block the dates. (I've done this before). If it was a booking request, If it were me I'd just accept and let the guest deal with cancelling or whatever. I'd also contact Airbnb CS to let them know I accepted because I didn't want to "decline" and get threatening messages about declining too many requests. 

[Marjorie117]

I received over twenty fake inquiries today alone. Airbnb should be monitoring these scammers,

[Alexandra316]

@Marjorie117 Are you reporting them? If people don't report, Airbnb won't be able to remove them.

[Marjorie117]

yes - reporting them